My hard drive deinitialized itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[intoeverything90]

My hard drive deinitialized itself and now the only way to reinitialize itself is to perform a low level format. However, this would mean that all the data on my hard drive would be lost. Is there anyway to reintialize my hard drive without losing any of the data? I have a Seagate UATA-i think- with 10.2 gb. Originally installed with win 98.

[merlin_2]

Does it boot??if so boot to safe mode hold down the f5 key and chose step by configuration.....answer yes to all.